Credit card and check frauds have become an ever-growing problem in recent years. Another development has been the rapid onset of electronic fund transfer through the use of bank debit cards or use of electronic data transfer (e.g. medical records, secret messages or bank transactions). As a protection against fraud and unauthorized actions, it is widely held that a PIN/KEY is one of the best methods for providing the cardholder and the issuer of the card with good security.
Only the Entity and the Action initiating Party know the PIN/KEY. When an Entity desires to initiate an action it can certify the action to the Action Initiating Party through the use of a PIN/KEY. This system is familiar to anyone who uses automatic bank teller machines. However, the PIN/KEY code is vulnerable to public visibility and is not usable without the physical presence of the Entity itself.
It is therefore an object of this invention to allow the use of an action PIN/KEY, which can be used to validate an Entity's identity and its authorization through the use of a PIN/KEY code entered into a Verification Authority central computer.
It is therefore a further object of this invention that the remote Verification Authority can communicate safely with another system by means of ordinary non-protected communication lines.
It is therefore a further object of this invention that the system has sufficient mobile capabilities so as to allow an Entity to authorize an action and enter an action PIN/KEY at various locations and through electronic means (e.g. tables in a restaurant, Internet or telephone).
It is therefore a further object of this invention to allow central verification of actions and that the system has sufficient mobile capabilities so as to allow an Entity to authorize an action and cuter action PIN/KEY at various locations (e.g. tables in a restaurant, Internet or telephone).
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an action verification system that can prevent the unauthorized actions and verify an Entity's identity. It is to such a system that the present invention is directed.